A court in Poland has found a Russian activist and his wife guilty of spying on behalf of Russia’s FSB security service and participating in a parcel bomb plot, Polish media reported Thursday.
Igor Rogov, a former employee of the now-defunct nonprofit Open Russia, was sentenced to seven years in prison for passing information about Poland-based Russian opposition groups and activists to the FSB.
He was also convicted of participating in a July 2024 scheme to send a courier package containing bomb components, which authorities intercepted before it reached its destination.
His wife, Irina Rogova, was sentenced to three years in prison under the same charges.
The trial, which began in January in the southern city of Sosnowiec, was held behind closed doors due to national security concerns, according to the English-language Polish broadcaster TVP World.
Rogov and his wife had fled Russia and settled in Poland, where they were granted refugee status following the 2022 invasion of Ukraine. They were arrested in 2024.
The Russian-language outlet Vot Tak reported that Rogov told investigators he was pressured into cooperating with the FSB, first due to issues at his university in Russia and later because of threats that his father would be forcibly conscripted to fight in Ukraine.
Rogova reportedly acknowledged in court that she knew of her husband’s contacts with the intelligence agency but did not plead guilty herself.
Igor Rogov is expected to be released in five years and Irina Rogova in a year and a half due to their time spent in pre-trial detention, according to Vot Tak.
